About

A. This site helps practitioners identify areas of interest, select pertinent mitigation actions, and tailor an individualized action plan for Transportation Performance Management (TPM). Different audiences may seek to use the site in different ways.

• Agency practitioners and regional planning partners facing a TPM issue or challenge may look through the tool's TPM Issues identify matching issues, and then use this document to reference the connected set of candidate mitigation actions. They may choose to prioritize the mitigation actions based on based on the anticipated cost or complexity, applicable performance area(s), or their agency’s existing organizational priorities and other factors and may work collaboratively to more fully specify the costs and potential benefits.
• An AASHTO or TRB Committee, Subcommittee or Topic-Area Work Group developing research statements, an event-based workshop, or an organizational or strategic plan, may scope candidate mitigation actions by a particular mitigation type or strategy and prioritize among candidate mitigation actions within that type.
• FHWA, FTA, AASHTO and other organizations may use this tool to identify prioritized issues and their associated candidate mitigation actions to prioritize capacity-building efforts to advance TPM implementation. Depending on their area(s) of expertise, staff from these agencies and organizations may use the tool to direct their efforts at resolving issues within specific performance areas or related to specific TPM processes.

A. To create an account submit your information here. When you sign up for the TPM Action Planner, you will receive a verification email from webadmin@spypondpartners.com. If you have any trouble with the verification link ormanually entering the verification token, then please email webadmin@spypondpartners.com for more assistance.

A. Once logged in, the homepage provides access to create and view your TPM Action Plans. You are able to start a new plan, see existing plans, access the how-to guide, or adjust your account settings from the four main buttons on the homepage or the top-level menu. Beneath the key buttons, the homepage displays your most recently saved action plan. You may click on the plan to jump back into editing or view and print the final plan. For more instructions, check out the How-To Guide.

A. The plan is organized around three elements, Issue Areas, Issues, and Actions. Each Issue falls under a specific Issue Area; however, one Action may apply to more than one Issue. These three elements are further organized by a series of different scoping elements. These are: Tiers, Themes, Performance Areas, and Mitigation Strategies. Tiers and Themes impact the Issue Areas, while Performance Areas and Mitigation Strategies relate specifically to the Issues.

• Tiers: Issue areas are rated on their criticality, derived from a composite criticality index evaluating the issue area’s urgency and importance.
• Themes: Issue areas are grouped into four themes, with only one theme per issue area.
  • Theme 1: Ability to Support Decision-Making
  • Theme 2: Alignment of Reporting and Management Responsibilities
  • Theme 3: Data Quality and Reliability
  • Theme 4: Integration with Agency Business Processes and Practices
• Performance Areas: Issues are tagged with performance areas; one issue may fall under multiple performance areas.
• Mitigation Strategies: Issues are assigned mitigation strategies via a many-to-many relationship, so each mitigation strategy may apply to more than one issue and each issue may have multiple mitigation strategies.
  • Engagement – facilitating communication between different stakeholders
  • Guidance – preparing supplemental or improved guidance documents
  • Research – gathering information, performing analysis, or developing a recommendation (including for new data or software tools)
  • Training – developing training materials
  • Policy/Regulatory – changing regulations, typically at the federal level

There are 18 Issue Areas, 68 Issues, and 97 Mitigation Strategies. Each Issue Area has one or more related Issues, and each Issue has at least two Mitigation Strategies.

A. This site was developed by Spy Pond Partners through the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 20-24(127). The site builds on a review of TPM practice and phased practitioner outreach to identify, synthesize, and prioritize common challenges and issues associated with TPM implementation.